Am I too stupid for chess?

Don't worry, we're all "too stupid for chess":) It's a game that takes a long time to learn. Play longer games.

Like 5 minute blitz?

No, like turn-based chess. Where you can get a few games going and take a lot of time to plan your moves and try to figure out your opponent's moves on the analysis board:)

At the very least 15/0. I would suggest at least 30/0 with lots of 3day/move games.

"I've been playing 3 minute blitz games because I feel like it is forcing me to realize and see plays and strategies quickly"

NO NO NO!! This is 110% not true and counterproductive to improving.

It is like learning to play a guitar. Can you get good if you start with speed metal? No. You have to start out slow and build a foundation of skill. Chess is no different.

Stop playing blitz.  Play longer games.  Analyze your games afterwards.

Great responses guys, thank you. I'll start playing longer games.

Even your dog knows with that 'Really, you're going to play blitz already?' look on its face.

You got good advice.   I never played any blitz games until recently.  I did badly and shook like a leaf with my heart in my throat.   I'm used to taking as long as I want to figure out moves and blitz is totally foreign.  I began to wonder if it was good or bad for longer chess and looked for threads on the topic.  If you search you will find plenty of discussion.  There is a clear consensus that blitz hurts your classic game.  If you are new to chess but want to be better at over the board play, leave it alone for now.

Blitz world is populated with another kind of obsessive chess player and at the lower level where you and I are they are some really socially maladjusted folks.   They hurl insults and get as nasty sometimes as I've ever seen chess players be.  Not all are that way of course but the thickets are heavily laden with cretins and trolls who consider anyone who loses to them their raw meat.

Blitz chess addicts. 

Doppel-

Thank you for the great reply. I'm interested in learning chess the right way, so i'm really going to only play the turn-based classic games for now. Thanks again.

It looks like you're missing some simple threats. An easy thing to do when your opponent moves is to ask yourself what the move does. For example after 1.e4 d5 what is Black threatening? What moves can you play to deal with this?

A helpful link: 

Controlling the Center 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFOWoUdwsjo

I started out pretty much like you a little over a year ago. Here are some blog posts I wrote that might help you along the way:

http://www.chess.com/blog/kleelof/the-nature-of-imporvement

http://www.chess.com/blog/kleelof/my-opening-study

http://www.chess.com/blog/kleelof/post-game-analysis---a-simple-approach

Therealpete. I'm not exactly a threat to anybody's rating around here, if you know what I mean... but I live for the upset win. I suppose that's what keeps me going. But if you're going to quit playing chess, don't let it be because you are "too stupid" ... pick a different reason,for goodness sake! Now go get 'em!

@TitanCG, thanks for the links. From digging further it appears that I have a lot of various youtube & chess.com videos to watch.

@Kleelof, I'll take a look at your blogs thank you for sharing.

@Articus did you ever lose motivation when you started playing chess?

I like the chessopenings.com videos for basic introductions to openings.

We don't know your experience but you've said that you were new in this game. Probably you understand that it's not possible to master in chess right away. Many people have experience here even if they have medium ratings. It can be frustrating to lose almost every time but it means you can progress significantly as well. I agree that you need to play slower games and the point is you need to play at least such time control where you more or less understand a position. For example in my case it's 10-minute game. It's the time control where i can have decent quality and in some games i only make several inaccuracies. Chess game is about quality, don't play time controls where you make blunders and mistakes all the time. Also if you want to progress then you need proper training. First of all you need to read a book which explains basic principles of the game. I see you don't follow them and it will be huge impovement when you do. Also solve tactics. You are a premium member and you have an opportunity to solve puzzles in TT. Why don't you? Personaly i find TT very helpfull and i solve tactics on chesstempo and from books quite regularly. And you should train more then playing. This is all only if you want to progress and if you don't then you can forget this bulshit and have fun only doing what you are doing now because chess demands dedication.

I'll take a look.

@Omega_Doom

I have zero chess experience, the more games I play and the more content I read/watch the more I realize how much work and practice one must put in to get results. If by TT you are meaning tactics trainer, I have been using it for only 1 or 2 days now. My goal is to use all 25 "TT" that is available to gold members.

"Also if you want to progress then you need proper training."

What is proper training exactly?

"First of all you need to read a book which explains basic principles of the game."

Can you recommend some books? (Preferably one book)

" I see you don't follow them and it will be huge impovement when you do."

Follow what?

Sorry for the chain quoting I didn't know how else to format it.

I can't say that I've ever lost motivation. I'm still very much a student of the game and I read as much as I play. Little things are starting to click and make sense. I'm starting to recognize positions that I've been in before and I know what will result from them. I find myself saying, "Stop! I can't line up my king and queen in front of his bishop!" and catching a potential blunder instead of saying, "What? My queen was on the board just a minute ago!" They might be small victories, but...yeah. Still motivated : )

Chess is all about mistakes.

Victories come in the elimination of mistakes.